


the edge of forever

by mars22



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Slice of Life, and a normal summer, basically el gets a normal life, but idk, ig this could be considered, which she so deserves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25152550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mars22/pseuds/mars22
Summary: she [used to think] that she could have one home, a home where she lived and breathed and loved. she thought that she had to make a choice, but now she knows she was wrong. el can be at home when she takes late morning showers, or hangs out with max, or mike, or the whole party. she can be at home when she's eating dinner with her family, or watching tv with her parents. she can have a million different homes, and love them each dearly and equally.or;for the first time in her life, el has a normal summer, and this is just a normal summer's day.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Eleven | Jane Hopper & The Party, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 11
Kudos: 32





	the edge of forever

It's been years since the lab, and El could finally appreciate life without that giant dark cloud over her head. 

  
For example, she finds that she likes showers cold in the summertime. Indiana summers are so muggy and hot, especially this time of year in early August, and hot showers make her feel gross and sticky. She can find comfort in cold water washing away sweat and dirt from her face and hands without feeling like she's trapped in a tank, pressing in on her from all sides. Early morning sunshine streams in on her, and drenches her shower in gooey sunlight. It feels like the start to a normal girl's day (it is, and she can finally appreciate a normal life).

  
Even though her and her dad have moved back to Hawkins with the Byers, they don't live in the cabin anymore. What was left of it was taken by snow and rain, and so what little objects they left now have irreparable water damage. They live with the Byers now, anyway, in a house bigger than the cabin but smaller than their Illinois house, and so they don't feel a very big need for their old, torn red sofa from the cabin. Plus, this house is probably El's favorite "home" she's ever had. Very little changed between the Illinois house and where she lives now (other than the renewed presence of her big, gruff dad), but she's so much happier now. Everything feels brighter, and softer at the edges. She feels like this could maybe, finally, be her home.

  
El walks back to her room, towling off her hair and clothed in a comfy bathrobe. Her dad and Joyce are both at work, and she doesn't know where the boys are, so she's home alone to blast music and get dressed for the day. Since Will isn't there to hog their radio with the alternative station, she puts on the pop channel and listens to Bananarama as she gets dressed, in a pair of shorts and a Cyndi Lauper t-shirt that she bought with Max at Sam Goody. She brushes her hair, which is now curlier than ever in the humidity and down just past her shoulders. The fan whirs on Will's desk, cooling down the room, and she doesn't even think to be haunted by cool metal chairs and chilly tile splattered in blood. 

  
On the way out, she passes her calendar, a day in mid-August marked off to go visit her aunt, someone she decided to have lunch with every couple weeks. Her and Mike always drive out, look at old pictures, and spend pleasant days making small talk with Becky. It feels nice, to have someone that she's actually related to to be there for her, to have lemonade and sandwiches and have something close to a biological family. She closes her door, pulls her shoes on at the front of the house, and leaves for Max's place. 

  
Ever since they've been back, Max has been teaching El to skateboard. They spend long days on the hot pavement, and El is usually left with scrapes on her knees from tripping and falling, but she's finally getting the hang of it. It's fun to spend time with Max, anyways, without their guy friends and without a big mystery looming over their heads, to just exist by themselves, to be together and laugh at jokes only they would get.The scrapes on her knees don't even remind her of running and tripping and hot breath on her face from running from the police with Kali. 

  
After skating, her and Max go to the diner, where Dustin and Lucas are now working, to get a bit of lunch. They talk and laugh all together, for the first time without having to run from government officials or posessed journalists. Eventually, Mike and Will show up, too, back from mapping out a Dungeons and Dragons campagain. Dustin and Lucas take their lunch break and they all spend a summer afternoon throwing fries at each other and sharing ice cream and laughing together. She rests her head on Mike's shoulder and quietly watches Dustin and Max argue over everything and nothing yet again. El feels at home again, with her friends squished into this booth by the window on a sticky day.

  
Max has to go home after lunch, but she and Mike decide to go on a walk together through town, with Will promising to go home and let her parents ( _parents_ , plural!) know she's okay. They hold hands and walk down Mainstreet, cars leisurely rolling by. Once, she looks up at him and sees him for everything she loves about him: his hair is ablaze from the direct sunlight, and his freckles are more prominent than ever in the summer heat. He's wearing fabric shorts and a rugby shirt, as usual, and he's grinning a big toothy grin and telling her again how good the campaign is going to be. Her love for him feels so big and bright that she possibly can't contain it any longer. 

  
"I love you," she almost whispers, out of the blue. He cuts himself off in shock for a second, before grinning even wider than before. 

  
"I love you, too, El," he says, leaning down to press a quick kiss to her lips. "Is something up?"

  
"No," she responds, smiling. "I just wanted to say it."

"Okay," he resolves, and they start walking again. El corrects herself in her head: this, walking with Mike, hand in hand on a hot summer's day, is home. 

Eventually, he walks her home, kissing her goodbye and promising to call later that night. She runs inside and pulls off her shoes, bounding inside for a glass of water. El runs into Hopper in the kitchen, lighting a cigarette and leaning against the countertop. She smiles softly at him as she pulls a glass from the cupboard, before he pulls her in for a hug. 

  
"Oh -- Dad, I can't breathe."

  
"Sorry, kid," he says, letting her go. They share a familiar smile as she fills her cup with ice and tap water. It feels easy in their kitchen, where they can just come and go throughout the day, like they're a normal family who's been there forever. El, again, is reminded that she's finally home, before running into the living room to catch her soap opera. 

  
Joyce is in there, folding the laundry and watching the local weather station. El changes the station quickly, not without asking first, and her and Joyce watch together in an easy, mother and daughter kind of way. Sometimes, not to insult Joyce, but just to dream, she imagines it's her real mom sitting beside her and folding laundry, and not the woman who's technically her stepmom. But Joyce has always really been her mom, or the woman she considered to be her mother anyway, and no part of her is sad that she gets Joyce instead of her real mom.

  
Eventually, the episode ends and it's time for dinner. They have chicken and a salad, and they all eat around their big table and laugh and talk together, like a proper family (not that they aren't). The food is good and she's so, so happy and everything feels like it's clicked into place again. After dinner, she and her dad put on old music and wash the dishes together, dancing and singing like they did when they first starting living together. The last ray of sunlight sunk under the horizon, and they turned the kitchen light off for the night before going to watch a movie together, just like they used to, before wishing each other a good night and heading to bed. 

  
El puts her pajamas on and gets ready for bed in the bathroom before turning in to her room, where Will is reading a book under his covers with the light on. She crawls into bed, too, and calls Mike on their landline, per usual. They chat about their nights and their families before Joyce pokes her head in to turn their light off and send them to bed.

  
As El falls asleep, comforted by the sound of Will's even breathing next to her, she thinks about how wrong she was, back when she was thirteen. Then, she thought that she could have one home, a home where she lived and breathed and loved. She thought that she had to make a choice, but now she knows she was wrong. El can be at home when she takes late morning showers, or hangs out with Max, or Mike, or the whole Party. She can be at home when she's eating dinner with her family, or watching TV with her family. She can have a million different homes, and love them each dearly and equally.

  
El rolls over and stares out at the moon and pays attention to the sound of Will falling asleep, things she never got as a child. She focuses on how much she's gained instead of how much she's lost, and isn't even troubled by the stuffed animal in her arms or the drawings on their wall that, once upon a time, would've made her shake and cry with horrible memories. 

  
El finds that 1987 is everything 1985 should've been, that it's everything she's ever dreamed of.

**Author's Note:**

> the title is stolen from the dream academy song of the same name.  
> idk how to describe this work, so sorry if you were expected something of substance or with actual dialogue, but i'm just more comfortable writing with little to no dialogue, so that's how we ended up here lmao. i also wrote this in, like, an hour today, because summer always makes me nostalgic for emotions i've never felt and so i wanted to write something just describing the kind of day i'm having: slow and sweet but perfect, too.  
> i also wanted to kind of counteract the notion from season 2, where her whole arc was that she was picking a home, whereas in this story she realizes that she doesn't have to choose, that her "homes" can coexist and none of them are necessarily lesser than any other.  
> you can find me on tumblr under mikewhecler :)


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